Swimming goggles

ABSTRACT

Swimming goggles, wherein belts are fitted to an eye protective eye cup portion, a mounting/dismounting mechanism for mounting and dismounting the goggles on and from a head part is fitted to the belts, whereby since the mounting/dismounting mechanism for mounting and dismounting the goggles on and from the head part is fitted to the belt fitted to the eye cup part, a user can mount and dismount the goggles on and from the head part by merely slightly pulling the belt to connect and disconnect the mounting/dismounting mechanism, and must not extend the belt by pulling to such a length as to provide an allowance for installation on the head, and the swimming goggle making it hard for hairs to be disturbed more than before when installed on the head part can be provided.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a pair of swimming goggles for use inswimming.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Conventionally, there has been a pair of swimming goggles used toprotect eyes of a user in swimming.

As shown in FIG. 9, a pair of conventional swimming goggles includes aneye cup portion 21 for protecting eyes of a user and a belt 22 connectedto the eye cup portion 21. When a user puts the swimming goggles on andoff his/her head, the belt 22 has to be pulled and extended to such alength as to provide enough space for his/her head.

However, the pair of conventional swimming goggles sometimes causes sucha problem that when a user tries to put the swimming goggles on his/herhead with pulling the belt 22, the user's hair is tousled by beingpulled with the belt 22. Especially for women with long hair, the belt22 is much more likely to get stuck with their bundled hair. If the useris wearing a swimming cap, the swimming cap is likely to be displaced orremoved from his/her head.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a pairof swimming goggles which can be put on the head of a user with lesstousling his/her hair compared with the conventional swimming goggles.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present inventiontakes the following technical means.

1. A pair of swimming goggles according to the present inventionincludes an eye cup portion for protecting eyes of a user, a belt whichis connected to the eye cup portion and a connecting and disconnectingmechanism which is provided on the belt, and theconnecting/disconnecting mechanism is used when the user puts theswimming goggles on and off his/her head.

In this swimming goggles, since the belt connected to the eye cupportion is provided with the connecting/disconnecting mechanism which isused when the user puts the swimming goggles on and off his/her head,the user can put the swimming goggles on and off the head by merelyslightly pulling the belt to connect and disconnect theconnecting/disconnecting mechanism, and the user does not have to pullthe belt to extend it to such a length as to provide enough space forhis/her head.

As the connecting/disconnecting mechanism, a mechanism of aone-touch-type, such as a buckle-type and a hook-type, can be employed.The entire length of the belt can be pre-determined by adjusting alength of the belt between the connecting/disconnecting mechanism andthe eye cup portion The belt may be connected to the eye cup portion byputting the belt through a hole provided on the eye cup portion and thenfolding the belt back (the belt is fixed by friction between the eye cupportion and the belt). Alternatively, the belt may be connected to theeye cup portion by using a clasp.

2. The belt may be made to be wider around a back portion which fits tothe user's occipital region and narrower around side portions which fitto the user's temporal region.

Because of this structure, the wide back portion of the belt can providebetter stability, while the narrow side portions can stretch well.Double-type, single-type and twin-type belts used for swimming gogglesbelts, made from single material, have different cross-sectional areasaccording to their designs and so different stretching rates andstrength from each other, but they respectively have a constant width.Thus, the stretching rates and the strength per unit area between theback portion and the side portions do not vary but are constant ingeneral.

3. The belt may have a hard portion and a soft portion, and eachconnected area of the belt with the eye cup portion may be formed withthe hard portion.

It is common to use material with elasticity (for example, elasticthermoset rubber or thermoplastic elastomer) for a belt for swimminggoggles in order to improve fitting comfortability and the stability ofthe belt. However, if the material with elasticity is used for theconnected areas of the belt with the eye cup portion, the elasticitycauses a problem as the belt tends to come off the eye cup portioneasily while the swimming goggles is in use. Therefore, there has been ademand for a pair of swimming goggles (and a belt for swung goggles)which has a reliable connection between the belt and the eye cup portionwhich is not easily disconnected.

Since the belt of the present invention has the above-mentionedstructure, wherein the connected areas of the belt with the eye cupportion are made from hard material to be the hard portions, the beltcan be firmly connected to the eye cup portion not to be easily releasedtherefrom. On the other hand, the soft portion of the belt can fit to auser's head because of its elasticity.

4. The eye cup portion of the present invention may be provided witheither projections or holes on both sides and the belt of the presentinvention may be provided with either holes or projections correspondingto the projections or the holes of the eye cup portion. The belt and theeye cup portion can be connected together by inserting the projectionsor the holes of the eye cup portion into the corresponding holes orprojections of the belt.

The belt and the eye cup portion of the conventional swimming gogglesare connected together by folding back the belt which is connected tothe eye cup portion directly or through additional parts. However, thereis a problem that this structure increases resistance against the waterflow since there is a difference in level between the belt and the eyecup portion and the folded end portions of the belt flap around a user'stemporal region. There is another problem that this structure makes theappearance unattractive. Therefore, there has been a demand for a pairof swimming goggles in which there is no difference in level between thebelt and the eye cup portion, and there is no need that the belt has tobe folded back.

Accordingly, the pair of swimming goggles of this present invention hasthe above-mentioned structure in order to have such advantages as thereis no difference in level between the belt, and the belt does not haveto be folded back Since there is no difference in level between the beltand the eye cup portion and the folded end portions of the belt do notflap around a user's temporal region, the resistance against the waterflow can be decreased By omitting the conventionally used additionalparts, the number of parts in total can be decreased.

5. The eye cup portion of the present invention may be provided withprojections on its both sides, and the hard portion of the belt may beprovided with holes corresponding to the projections. The belt can beconnected to the eye cup portion by inserting the projections of the eyecup portion into the holes of the belt.

Because of this structure, the pair of swimming goggles of the presentinvention can have such advantages as high strength and superiordurability. In case that hard material is used for the side areas of theeye cup portion where the projections or the holes are provided, the eyecup portion can be firmly connected with the hard portion of the belt.

6. A belt for a pair of swimming goggles according to the presentinvention is connected to an eye cup portion for protecting eyes of auser and the belt is provided with a connecting/disconnecting mechanismfor putting the swimming goggles on and off a head of the user.

Since this belt, which is connected to the eye cup portion, is providedwith the connecting/disconnecting mechanism which is used when a userputs the swimming goggles on and off his/her head, the user can put theswimming goggles on and off the head by merely slightly pulling the beltto connect and disconnect the connecting/disconnecting mechanism, andthe user does not have to pull the belt to extend it to such a length asto provide enough space for his/her head.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an entire perspective view of the swimming goggles of anembodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of a hook-typeconnecting/disconnecting mechanism, which is in a disconnected state, ofthe swimming goggles shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of the hook-typeconnecting/disconnecting mechanism, which is in a disconnected state, ofthe swimming goggles shown in FIG. 1 which shows.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of the hook-typeconnecting/disconnecting mechanism, which is in a connected state, ofthe swimming goggles shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view of the hook-typeconnecting/disconnecting mechanism, which is in a connected state, ofthe swimming goggles shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged perspective view of a buckle-typeconnecting/disconnecting mechanism, which is in a disconnected state, ofanother embodiment of the swimming goggles shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged perspective view of the buckle-typeconnecting/disconnecting mechanism, which is in a connected state, ofanother embodiment of the swimming goggles shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged perspective view of the swimming goggles shown inFIG. 1 showing the belt which is about to be connected to the eye cupportion

FIG. 9 is an entire perspective view of a conventional pair of swimminggoggles.

FIG. 10 is an enlarged perspective view of the goggles in shown in FIG.1 showing an alternate connection for the belt to the eye cup portion.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of this invention are describedreferring to the drawings.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 8, a pair of swimming goggles according to thisembodiment has an eye cup portion 1 (which has left and right lenses 2)for protecting eyes of a user and a belt 3 which is connected to theboth sides of the eye cup portion 1, and the belt 3 is provided with aconnecting/disconnecting mechanism 4 which is used when the user putsthe swimming goggles on and off his/her head.

As the connecting/disconnecting mechanism 4, a mechanism of aone-touch-type, such as a hook-type (see FIGS. 1 to 5) and a buckle-type(see FIGS. 6 and 7), can be employed.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 5, the hook-type connecting/disconnectingmechanism 4 has a hook-shaped projection 5 and an engaging opening 6,and the mechanism 4 is made big in total size. In case of such abig-sized connecting/disconnecting mechanism 4, a user can connect anddisconnect the mechanism 4 more easily by his/her hands than asmall-sized mechanism, so the big-sized mechanism 4 is easier for theuser to use than the smaller one.

The hook-shaped projection 5 of the connecting/disconnecting mechanism 4is made smaller than the engaging opening 6 so as to make it easy forthe user to handle the mechanism 4. Specifically, the area of thehook-shaped projection 5 is 131 mm² and the area of the engaging opening6 is 297 mm², so that the reciprocal area ratio is set to be 1:2.7.

As shown in FIG. 1, the belt 3 is getting wider (the maximum width of 20mm) as going toward a back portion 7 thereof which fits to the user'soccipital region and getting narrower (the minimum width of 10 mm)around side portions 8 thereof which fits to user's temporal region. Thebelt 3 has the maximum width around the connected area with theconnecting/disconnecting mechanism 4.

The belt 3 is made from silicone material and formed as a single-pieceby hard portions 9 and a soft portion 10 (the degree of hardness is setto be about 40°). The connected areas of the belt 3 with the eye cuppotion 1 are formed with the hard portions 9 (the degree of hardness isset to be about 80°). Only the connected areas with the eye cup potion 1are formed with the hard portions 9 of the belt 3 and the other area ofthe belt 3 is formed with the soft portion 10.

As shown in FIG. 8, the eye cup portion 1 is provided with a T-shapedprojection 11 on each of sides, and the hard portion 9 of each of edgesof the belt 3 is provided with a hole 12 corresponding to the projection11. The belt 3 can be connected to the eye cup portion 1 by insertingthe projection 11 of the eye cup portion 1 into the hole 12 of the belt3. The side areas of the eye cup portion 1 where the projections 11 areprovided are also made from hard material (polycarbonate resin orcellulose propionate resin is used as the material).

Next, the pair of swimming goggles according to this embodiment which isin use will be explained below.

In the pair of swimming goggles according to the present invention,since the connecting/disconnecting mechanism 4, which is used when auser puts the swimming goggles on and off his/her head, is provided tothe belt 3 which is connected to the eye cup portion 1, the user can putthe swimming goggles on and off his/her head by merely slightly pullingthe belt to connect and disconnect the connecting/disconnectingmechanism (the connected state is shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5), (thedisconnected state is shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3), and the user does nothave to pull the belt 3 to extend it to such a length as to provideenough space for this/her head. And therefore, the pair of swimminggoggles of the present invention has an advantage in that the user canput it on his/her head with less tousling his/her hair compared withconventional swimming goggles. In other words, when the user is puttingthe swimming goggles of this invention on and off his/her head, theuser's hair is less likely to be tousled or pulled, and the swimming capis less likely to be displaced or removed.

Since the back portion 7 which fits to the user's occipital region ismade wider and the side portions 8 are made narrower, the pair ofswimming goggles has other advantages in that the portion 7 with thewide width can increase a fitting comfortability, while the sideportions 8 with the narrower width can stretch well.

Since the connected areas of the belt 3 with the eye cup portion 1,which are formed with the hard portion 9, are made from hard material,the pair of swimming goggles has further advantages in that the belt 3can be firmly connected to the eye cup portion 1 and the connection ofthe belt 3 cannot to be released there from easily. On the other hand,the soft portion 10 of the belt 3 can fit to a user's head because ofits elasticity. The pair of swimming goggles further has an advantage inthat the eye cup portion 1 can be firmly connected with the hard portion9 of the belt 3 since the side areas of the eye cup portion 1 where theprojections 11 are provided are made from hard material.

The eye cup portion 1 is provided with the T-shaped projections 11 onits both sides and the hard portion 9 of the belt 3 is provided with theholes 12 corresponding to the projections 11 of the eye cup portion 1 sothat the belt 3 and the eye cup portion 1 can be connected together byinserting the projections 11 of the eye cup portion 1 into thecorresponding holes 12 of the belt 3. Thus, the pair of swimming gogglesstill further has an advantage in that the belt 3 can suitably beconnected with the eye cup portion 1.

As described above, the pair of swimming goggles of this invention iseasy to put on and off the head even for women with long hair, oldpeople and children. The pair of swimming goggles can reduce anydifficulties at the time of putting it on and off the head, can achievethe firm connection between the belt 3 and the eye cup portion I and cangive the user a good comfortable fitting.

Since the present invention has such structures as described above and auser does not have to pull the belt to extend it to such a length as toprovide enough space around his/her head, the present invention canprovide a pair of swimming goggles which can be put on the head withless tousling the user's hair compared with conventional swimminggoggles and a belt for the pair of swimming goggles as well.

1. A pair of swimming goggles comprising: two eye cup portions forprotecting eyes of a user; a pair of belts wherein each of said pair ofbelts has first and second ends and said first end of each of said pairof belts is connected to an end of one of the two eye cup portions; aconnecting/disconnecting mechanism provided on said second end of thebelts for connecting and disconnecting the second ends of each of saidbelts together; a fastening mechanism provided between said first end ofeach of said belts and one end of said eye cup portions; and whereineach belt is integrally formed with a hard portion at said first end anda remainder of said belt is formed with a soft portion and saidfastening mechanism at said first end of the belt is formed from thehard portion without a folded back portion of said belt; and saidconnecting/disconnecting mechanism further includes means for adjustinga length of the belt connected to the connecting/disconnectingmechanism.
 2. The pair of swimming goggles according to claim 1, whereina back portion of the pair of belts which fits to the user's occipitalregion is made wider and side portions of the belt which fit to theuser's temporal region are made narrower.
 3. The pair of swimminggoggles according to claim 1, wherein said fastening mechanism comprisesa single projection on said ends of said two eye cup portions, and asingle hole provided in the first end of said belts corresponding to thesingle projections so that the first ends of the belts and the ends ofthe two eye cup portions are fastened together by inserting the singleprojections of the two eye cup portions into the corresponding singleholes of the first ends of the belts.
 4. The pair of swimming gogglesaccording to claim 1, wherein said fastening mechanism comprises theends of the two eye cup portions provided with single holes, and thefirst ends of the belts provided with single projections correspondingto the single holes so that the first ends of the belts and the ends ofthe two eye cup portions are fastened together by inserting the singleprojections of the first ends of the belts into the corresponding singleholes of the two eye cup portions.
 5. The pair of swimming gogglesaccording to claim 2, wherein said fastening mechanism comprises asingle projection on said ends of said two eye cup portions, and asingle hole provided in the first end of said belts corresponding to thesingle projections so that the first ends of the belts and the ends ofthe two_eye cup portions are fastened together by inserting the singleprojections of the two eye cup portions into the corresponding singleholes of the first ends of the belts.
 6. The pair of swimming gogglesaccording to claim 2, wherein said fastening mechanism comprises theends of the two eye cup portions provided with single holes, and thefirst ends of the belts provided with single projections correspondingto the single holes so that the first ends of the belts and the ends ofthe two eye cup portions are fastened together by inserting the singleprojections of the first ends of the belts into the corresponding singleholes.
 7. The pair of swimming goggles according to claim 1, wherein theconnecting/disconnecting mechanism is a one-touch type selected from thegroup consisting of a buckle-type or a hook-type.
 8. The pair ofswimming goggles according to claim 1, wherein said hard portion andsaid soft portion of said belt are respectively made from a samematerial but having different hardnesses.
 9. The pair of swimminggoggles according to claim 1, wherein the belt has a hard portion madefrom hard material and a soft portion made from soft material and saidfastening mechanism at said first end of the belt with the eye cupportion is formed with the hard portion.
 10. The pair of swimminggoggles according to claim 1, wherein the entire length of the pair ofbelts is predetermined by adjusting a length of each of the pair ofbelts between the connecting/disconnecting mechanism and the two eyecupportions.
 11. A pair of goggles comprising: at least one eye cup portionfor protecting the eyes of a user; a pair of belts wherein each saidpair of belts has first and second ends and said first end of each ofsaid pair of belts is connected to ends of said at least one eye cupportion; a connecting/disconnecting mechanism provided on said secondend of the belts for connecting and disconnecting the second ends ofeach of said belts together; a fastening mechanism provided between saidfirst end of each of said belts and each end of said at least one eyecup portion; and wherein each belt is integrally formed with a hardportion at said first end and a remainder of said belt is formed with asoft portion, and said fastening mechanism at said first end of the beltis formed from the hard portion without a folded back portion of saidbelt; and said connecting/disconnecting mechanism further includes meansfor adjusting a length of the belt connected to theconnecting/disconnecting mechanism.
 12. The goggles according to claim11 wherein said fastening mechanism comprises a single projection onsaid ends of said at least one eye cup portion and a single holeprovided in the first end of said belts corresponding to the singleprojection so that the first end of the belts and the ends of said atleast one eye cup portion are fastened together by inserting the singleprojection of the at least one eye cup portion into corresponding singlehole of the first ends of the belts.
 13. The pair of goggles accordingto claim 11 wherein said fastening mechanism comprises ends of said atleast one eye cup portion provided with single holes, and first ends ofthe belts provided with projections corresponding to the single holes sothat the first ends of the belts and the ends of the at least one eyecup portion are fastened together by inserting the single projectionsinto the corresponding single holes of the at least one eye cup portion.